Christine Tran

Born in Saigon, Vietnam, Christine Tran is passionate about the different aspects of nature present in our daily environment. Christine says “As long as we take the time to look at our feet or gaze into the infinite, beauty can be present anywhere.” She started in the 2014 with a DSLR Canon 70D.

Her presentation is nature through her eyes. Through these photographs, she expresses her feelings for the locations she visits and the wonders of nature that she encounters along the way. Her goal is to illustrate the rich experiences she has had in this multi-dimensional world as best as she can. These images were all taken while she was on vacation, most often right here in Virginia. “It’s not about where you are, but how you perceive,” Christine says.

She says “I was simply seeking to capture the moments of life and the beauty of a setting. Since my journey began, I have been constantly documenting and experimenting to evolve and improve the quality of my shots.”

Examples of Christine’s work:

David L. Crooks

Photography is David Crooks’ passion and to be able to capture the beauty of nature is the reward. From his early days of chasing after cardinals in his neighborhood, to visiting many local and far away, parks, reserves, and other places where “wild life” lives, David pursues his love of photography.

By way of background, in high school, David enrolled in a photography class and entered the Scholastic Arts contest where he won a blue ribbon. At home, he and his dad built a darkroom in the basement where he processed his own color prints and slides. In an effort to support his interest in photography and to minimize the associated costs, he took a position at a camera store where he sold cameras for five years. This netted him discounts on prints and equipment. Since his dad had a Canon camera, David saved his earnings and purchased a Canon A-1 film camera. During this time, David served as a photographer for his high he school newspaper. Several of his photos were published including one of the cheerleading squad. As an added plus, it was featured on the front page and was published on his birthday! Another of his photos appears on the book cover of “The History Champaign-Urbana, Ill”.

In the 1980s, David moved to the Washington, D.C., area. He attended a couple workshops with the NIH camera club. Through the years, other interest of his expanded and computers took center stage. However, once digital cameras matured and came down in price, he again saved up for a Canon 30D that reminded him of his original camera.

In 2009, he shot his photo of a lifetime: “A Great Blue Heron catching a Snake, eating a Fish.” This phenomenal photo was published in three UK newspapers (one print and two digital). He has also sold many copies of this unique print.

In 2013, Rust Library had a photo contest judged by Corey Hilz and David won a class with Corey and he exhibited ten photos for two months at the library. Plus, he created a book of the images that he has sold to friends on Facebook.

Three and half years ago, David, his wife and their dog Sam, moved to Annandale to be closer to work. In January 2015, David decided to create a local photography Meetup. He knew there were many great places to photograph the wildlife along the beltway near his house. Three years later, the Virginia Beltway Photography Meetup Group has over 1,400 members and he leads about two field trips a month.

In 2016 David joined NVPS in the 2016 season after moving from Leesburg. He agreed to be the Webmaster of the NVPS website. He was fairly active in the Loudoun Photo Club and won many ribbons in their monthly competitions.

Currently David uses a Canon 7D Mark II with a Sigma 50-500mm lens on a gimbal head and tripod. David has three destinations on his bucket list: Iceland, Cuba, and Costa Rica, in no particular order!

Recently, his abstract image that he took on the last NVPS field trip to Longwood Gardens was juried into the 2018 Eighth Annual Joseph Miller Abstract Photography Exhibit.

The title of his presentation is “Wild Life Images.” David has a passion for photographing a variety of subjects and especially wildlife. He is sharing his photographs of nature and other subjects that have caught his eye.